


: Library of the 
University of North Carolina 


Endowed by the Dialectic and Philan- 
thropic Societies. 






































wii it Ii il i il 
S708R Wile, 000327 


ET Se ita FOR USE ONLY IN 
THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 























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1 






, WASHINGTON: 


: F, & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 
REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CON¢ 
| 1871. ; ae 






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‘Enforcement of Fourteenth Amendment, 


The House having under consideration the bill 
(Hl. R. No. 320) to enforce the provisions of the four- 
teenth amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, and for other purposes— 


Mr. WADDELL said: 

Mr. Speaker: I rise to the performance of 
a sacred filial duty to my mother State. And 
it is fortunate for me that [am called upon 
to do so to-day, because very recently, in 
another place, another of her children in- 
trusted with her honor and her dearest inter- 
ests, a sentinel upon her highest watch tower, 
has betrayed his trust. Sir, in the criminal 
code of the Romans there. was no provision 
made for the punishment of parricide, be- 
cause it was considered an impossible crime. 
The unnatural being who could slay father 
or mother was considered as outside of the 
range of possibilities in creation. What shall 
be said of the American citizen who, when 
his mother State lies prostrate and helpless 
under accumulated calamities, unparalleled in 
ihe history of this country, when she stretches 
her bleeding arms and utters her pleading voice 
to him to aid and defend her, not only turns 
a deaf ear to hercry, but can become the will- 
ing tool of her defamers and despoilers; can, 
not only stand by consenting unto her death, 
but can himself give the last, final stab to her 
honor and her life? Sir, such a character as 
that and occupying his position was fitly de- 
seribed in the burning language of the poet- 
patriot of Ireland: 
‘‘Unovrized are her sons till they’ve learned to be- 


ray, 

Und'stinguished they live, ifthey shame not their 
sires; 

Ana thetoreh that would light them thro’ dignity’s 


way 
Must be caught from the pile where their country 
expires.” 


ay 
O~ 
2 





+ 


Mr. Speaker, it ought not to operate to the 
prejudice of the State most. deeply interested 
in the legislation contemplated here that her 
Representatives have deferred to others and 
have yielded to them all the earlier hours of 
this debate. Such a course was consonant with 
our feelings, and I think somewhat character- 
istic. It isimpossible, evenin the hour allowed 
by the rule, for any opponent of this bill to do 
justice either to the subject or to himself. I 
shall not discuss it in its constitutional aspects, 
but [ ask the indulgence of the House for a 
few moments while comment upon the alleged 
causes which are supposed to justify it, partic- 
ularly as touching my own State. In its effects 
the bill is ostensibly to be of universal appli- 
cation, but the debate has developed the fact, 
if it was not already known, that it is merely 
a party scheme, the operation of which is in- 
tended to be confined to that portion of the 
country which gentlemen take particular pleas- 
ure in designating as ‘‘the insurrectionary 
States.’’ It is an indictment against them, 
founded upon voluminous hearsay testimony, 
and the prosecutors have, unfortunately, I 
think, for the peace of the country, presented 
their arguments to the House, not in the calm 
spirit which should characterize the discussion 
of asubject so vast and far-reaching, but rather 
in the temper of the heated partisan. 

Now, sir, I shall not follow this example. 
I am not of that political temperament and 
never was, and it is gratifying to me to feel- 
that there are gentleman on the other side who 
know the fact. My friend, the honorable gen- 
tleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Keer, | to 
whose manly and generous conduct [ am 
chiefly indebted for my prompt admission to 
the seat I oceupy, a friendly service fer which 


4. 





I wish to make this public acknowledgment, 
knows that ever since the termination of the 
late war my efforts have been directed to the 
promotion of peace, justice, and good order in 
my native State; he knows that as early as 
the summer of 1865, before the Government 
had taken any step toward the enfranchisement 
of that race of which he is the eloquent cham- 
pion, and when the majority of those who are 

‘now his political associates were afraid to 

|-advocate that measure J, alone and in the face 

jof a public opinion of which even he had 
iscarcely a just appreciation, made a. public 
fspeech in its favor. For this reason I have 
hoped that what I may say in regard to the 

“condition of affairs in North Carolina would 
be accepted by him and others as at least free 
from misrepresentation and undue prejudice. 

Mr. KELLEY. Will the gentleman allow 
me a moment? 

Mr. WADDELL. Certainly. 

Mr. KELLEY. I wish to testify to the truth 
of what the gentleman has stated. 

Mr. WADDELL. I hope this will not be 
taken out of my time. . 

Mr. KELLEY. I do it out of the gratitude 
I have borne him from those early days for an 
argument in behalf of that oppressed race, 
that would have done credit to any, the most 
enthusiastic, northern man. 

Mr. WADDELL.  Itis grateful to my feel- 
ings to hear those things, but 1 have not time 
to yield further. h 

Thave voted, Mr. Speaker, on every occasion 
for an investigation into these alleged outrages 
in my State, not because I believed ‘in the 
necessity or in the power of Congress to send 
out such an itinerant grand jury, but because 
{ was unwilling to give the slightest ground for 
the suspicion that either I or my constituents 
were averse to the most rigid investigation 
which could be instituted into the terrible 
crimes which are laid at our doors; and after 
I was appointed on the committee of thirteen, 
I tried, on three different occasions, to get the 
floor in order that I might ask to be excused 
from serving, because I desired to see that 
committee composed exclusively of gentlemen 
from the northern States. I was willing for 
an investigation, because I am satisfied that, 
when the whole truth is known, the people of 
the North will begin to understand some of 
the grievous burdens which the people of North 
Carolina have been compelled to bear, and 
which they have borne in a manner that justi- 
fies me in saying thatif inexhaustible patience 
be an attribute of God, they have exhibited at 
least one Divine quality. 

Ido not deny that crimes have been com- 
mitted in North Carolina. I donotdeny that 
in a small portion of the State bands of dis- 
guised men have violated the criminal laws of 
the State. Although without personal knowl- 
edge on the subject, the published testimony 











satifies me that such has been the case, just as 

Iam satisfied that similar outrages have oc- 
curred, and are daily occurring, in the States 
of the North and Northwest—the only differ- 
erence being that the Ku Klux of the South 
wore disguises, which prevented recognition 
and consequent punishment, while those of 
the North commit their crimes undisguised 
and in open day. ‘. 

Mr. ELDRIDGE. I wish to call the gen- 
tleman’s attention to the fact that in Iowa the 
other day men disguised went into a post office 
there, took out the postmaster and lashed him, 

Mr. WADDELL. Yes, sir; men disguised 
with masks. 

Mr. ELDRIDGE. According to the alleged 
Ku Klux plan. 

Mr. WADDELL. I do not excuse or palliate 
these offenses, nor do my constituents; and I 
do not intend to be forced into any such posi- 
tion by gentlemen, who appear to be unable 
or unwilling to distinguish between opposition 
to unjust and unconstitutional legislation and 
sympathy with the crimes to the suppression 
of which that legislation is directed. But while 
I admit that crimes have been committed and » 
that from various causes the perpetrators of 
them have escaped punishment, I do most 
emphatically deny that the people, or any con- 
siderable portion of them, countenance or en- 
courage the wrong-doers. I deny that there 
has been or is now any resistance to the exe- 
cution of the laws, State or Federal. I deny 
that the property or lives of loyal men (which 
too often means licensed thieves) are not safe 
down there; and I assert that the humblest 
officer in the State, even though he be a negro 
constable, so black that charcoal would make 
a white mark on him, can go in safety, alone, 
and at midnight, and arrest the best citizen of 
the State. 

Admitting all that can justly and truthfully 
be said against her people, I assert that in no 
State of this Union is there now or has there 
been less crime of any kind than in the State 
of North Carolina. I assert that amore quiet, © 
peaceable, and law-abiding people than her 
citizens do not live on earth, not even except- 
ing that favored land which was blessed by the 
nativity and now rejoices in the existence of 
the gentleman from Massachusetts. Still they 
have been pilloried before the world as a 
decivilized community, in which social chaos 
prevailed; the State has been represented as 
one in which the genius of murder held high 
carnival, as an accursed land of outlaws and 
assassins, in which there was no protection for 
life, liberty, or property, and upon which the 
iron hand of military power must be laid to 
reduce it to order and peace! 

We, her Representatives on this floor, have 
sat quietly and listened to the denunciations 
of our people by gentlemen who have no other 
acquaintance with them than such as they have 


») 








gathered from their slanderers and traducers, 
until we would have been lost in amazement 
except for the fact that no style of argument 
other than that of generosity can surprise us. 
We have no bitter words to say to gentlemen 
on the other side while defending our State 
and our people. They have worn the collar 
six long, weary years in silence and sorrow, 
and if they had not been sustained by the 
deathless spirit of true heroism and love of 
liberty they would have utterly succumbed to 
their fate. They must still submit to whatever 
legislation is provided for them; but, although 
reduced to a condition of political degradation 
heretofore unknown in this country, although 
smitten by poverty, plundered and oppressed, 
they still struggle manfully on, clinging to the 
hope that their countrymen will yet do them 
justice, and restore to them their rights. 

I will describe to youina few words the true 
condition of the people of North Carolina 
after the war, and their experience during the 
past five years of Republican rule, while under 
the absolute control of ‘‘the party of progress 
and great moral ideas,’’ and I will say at the 
outset that no party in the history of this 
country ever had such an opportunity to per- 
petuate its power by intrenching itself behind 
impregnable lines, and no party ever so ut- 
terly wasted its opportunities and so covered 
itself with disgrace. Coming out of the great 
struggle like a strong man exhausted by fever, 
the State lay prostrate and helpless. I shall 
not insult the intelligence of the House by 
dwelling on the evils attending the annihila- 
tion of the entire labor system of a country at 
a single blow, nor shall I harrow my own feel- 
ings by a recital of the sufferings and humili- 
ations to which our people were subjected. 
Suffice it to say that they presented a con- 
dition which demanded, if not the experiment 
of active charity, at least the privilege of 
exemption from further molestation. They 
had complied with all that was required of 
them by the Government, and only desired to 
rebuild, as best they might, their waste places. 
The, public debt of the State, principal and 
interest, was about seventeen million dollars, 
an immense sum to people so impoverished 
as they were. 

Well, sir, without going further into details, 
this was our condition when ‘‘the party of 
great moral ideas’’ took possession. ‘hey 
proclaimed their intention to be, while elevat- 
ing the colored race, to inaugurate a new era 
of reform in all other respects—an enterprise; 
for his participation in which, one of the new 
legislators declared that his name would 
descend to ‘‘de arkives of grabity,’’ a region 
which the plummet of philology has, I believe, 
never yet explored. 

They took charge of all the departments of 
the State government, and after multiplying 


| 
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officers ad tnfinitwm under a constitution en- 
tirely new to the people; after wiping out the 
judicial system which had become venerable, 
and to which the people were attached, even 
descending in a spirit of petty revenge to the 
business of changing the names of localities 
offensively ; after destroying the State Univer- 
sity without substituting anything in its stead, 
and after many similar preliminaries, they 
increased the State debt at a single bound to 
the comfortable figure of $35,000,000 for the 
purpose of building railroads and developing 
resources generally—a legislative feat which 
was accomplished by the judicious expendi- 
ture of $200,000 by a loyal gentleman in the 
establishment of a free bar-room in the capitol, 
with peanuts thrown in. ‘Ten millions of this 
debt having been declared unconstitutional by 
the supreme court, there was still left and now 
stands a debt of $25,000,000. No railroad has 
been built, and the money was used by a loyal 
gentleman named Littlefield, from Pennsyl- 
vania, and an enterprising native named Swep- 
son, partly I believe in buying out the State of 
Florida from a gentleman from Wisconsin. 
Loyal Leagues had been organized through- 
out the State, in which the colored population 
were welded together in solid mass under oath 
in opposition to the native whites, and the 
practical teaching of these organizations was 
that the latter must be kept down. ‘The crop 
thus sowed began to come up in crimes, the 
perpetrators of which sometimes escaped de- 
tection, and sometimes were convicted only to 
be pardoned and turned loose on society again. 
I said a few moments ago that I had no per- 
sonal knowledge of any of these outrages, but 
I will qualify that expression. In the practice 
of my profession I was present in court once 
when a very bad case was testified to. The 
prosecuting witness, who was the victim, was a 
poor colored man, who exhibited his scars and 
told the pitiful story of how, while sitting by 
his humble hearth, in the twilight of an autumn 
evening, he had been seized, conducted from 
his house to the bushes, and there cruelly 
flogged by three of his neighbors. They were 
colored neighbors, and in answer to his demand 
why he was so outraged, they told him that he 
had stayed at home on the day of election, 
instead of going and voting the Republican 
ticket. They admitted, as [ was informed, 
before the committing magistrate that they had 
done the deed under instructions from the chief 


of the Loyal League for that county. Those 


men were tried by a white jury, sentenced by a 
Democratic judge to the penitentiary, and duly 
pardoned out by the Republican Governor, 
Mr. Holden. 

Similar occurrences took place in other parts) 
of the State, except that generally it was a 
white man’s property burned up or his wife 


| or daughter insulted ; and, as might have been 





——— —- — 


texpected, retaliation sometimes occurred, and 
then it was that these deplorable crimes 
were committed, crimes which I denounce as 
severely as any man in the United States; 
crimes which | am happy to know no longer 
take place in North Carolina, and which have 
never been countenanced, so far as I know, 
by any decent man in the State.) 

I have not told the hundredth part of the 
story. J have said nothing about the imbecile, 
drunken, and (in at least one case) corrupt 
judges who have been foisted on those people, 
and who now grease the bench, and soil the 


ermine once worn by a pure and learned judi-. 


ciary. I have not even mentioned the acts of 
Governor Holden in importing a band of cut- 
throats, under Kirk and Bergen, into the State, 
and the tortures inflicted upon aged, distin- 
guished, and unoffending citizens, for which he 
has been impeached, convicted, and removed 
from office. I will not dwell on these things, 
for I wish to avoid the utterance of any intem- 
perate language, or to give expression even to 
the righteous indignation which their remem- 
brance excites. 

I will allude to one matter, and in doing so 
Lhope I shall carefully regard the proprieties 
of this occasion. It has been asserted that 
the perpetrators of these cowardly crimes were 
confederate soldiers, who might be tried by 
drum-head court-martial for violation of their 
parole and shot. Mr. Speaker, the only evi- 
dence of that fact is the statement of a self- 
confessed perjurer, that he ‘‘ supposed’? it was 
so, because almost every man in the country 
had been in the army. Sir, this is the most 
cruel slander which has yet been hurled against 
a gallant people. Whatever the opinion enter- 
tained in regard to the criminality of the south- 
ern people in waging war by those who received 
; a different political education, I spit upon and 
the world will laugh to scorn the allegation 
that the soldiers who fought four years against 
overwhelming odds and so brilliantly illus- 
trated the martial qualities of the American 
people are a set of skulking and cowardly 
assassins. No, sir, whatever else you may say 
about them, you cannot utter that libel with- 
out making yourself ridiculous, and no one 
of the thousands of gallant Federal soldiers 
who met them when this continent shook be- 
neath the thunder of artillery and the tread 
of armies will ever so disgrace himself and 
dishonor his own comrades as to speak that 
slanderous word. ‘They were crushed, sir, and 
returned with bleeding hearts and tattered gar- 
ments to desolated homes, but, thank God, sir, 
they kept their plighted faith, and their honor 
is unstained. 


Now. Mr. Speaker, to return to the bill | 


under consideration, I wish to utter my solemn 
srotest against its passage, not merely because 
it will affect the people whom I represent, but 








— se 


as an American citizen, who, regardless of 
your incredulity, still loves his country and 
earnestly desires to promote her glory and 
prosperity. 

If the people of the South were inspired by 
a sentiment of revenge toward their country- 
men, if, like Samson of old, they wished to 
involve the whole American people with them- 
selves in a common ruin, | know no way in 
which that sentiment could be more swiftly 
and surely gratified than by the passage of 
this bill. Pass it and you tear down the last 
column on which rests the still fair but dis- 
figured temple of American liberty. Pass it, 
and by congressional enactment you will have 


Lestablished an absolute despotism, not over 


the South alone, but over the whole country. 
Pass it, and the whole power of this Govern- 
ment will be in the hands of one, whose hands 
never relax their grasp on anything that is put 
intothem. And then you will see that of which 
you have now buta glimpse; then you will 
indeed see him ‘‘instruct his priuces after his 
will and teach his Senators’’—not to oppose 
his schemes of aggrandizement. 

If gentlemen will not listen to the protest 
of the people of the southern States against 
this rank usurpation, because they are accus- 
tomed to disregard appeals from that quarter, 
let them at least, for their own sake and that 
of their children, whose rights and liberties 
are imperiled, cease this violent, unconstitu- 
tional, and revolutionary legislation, which can 
bring only evil upon the country, the whole 
country; for the man must be a stark fool 
who cannot see that, however strong the dis- 
position to limit the operation of this bill to 
the southern States, it will inevitably and in- ~ 
exorably extend its deadly influence over the 
whole land. 

I feel, Mr. Speaker, the extraordinary cir- © 
cumstances by which I and my southern col- 
leagues find ourselves surrounded on this oc- 
casion. I feel that I stand here to-day a mes- 
senger, sent back by those who have passed 
through the bitter waters of a Dead sea, to 
warn their more fortunate brethren who have 
not yet reached its shores of what awaits them’ 
in its passage, and to arrest their footsteps. It 
will be well with them if they heed the warn- 
ing. Bat if they do not,.if they will persist in 
their blind march into the region of political 
darkness and death, we will at least have the 
satisfaction of knowing that the calamities 
which surely await them are in no wise charge- 
able to us. 

Ido not doubt that some gentlemen on the 
other side really believe all the horrible stories 
which have been told them in regard to the 
condition of affairs in North Carolina and 
throughout the South, and are sincerely con- 
cerned about it. It is, perhaps, natural for 


' those who have been taught from childhood 














to regard the people of that portion of the 
country as semi-barbarians, if not absolutely 
hostes humani generis, to lend a willing ear to 
any discreditable report concerning them. It 
is not, perhaps, extravagant to say that, un- 
consciously it. may be, they are just the least 
bit prejudiced on this subject. But I accord 
to them, notwithstanding this, a willingness, 
if not a desire, to do justice even to us. 

Do those gentlemen ever study the situation 
of our people by the light of history and the 
experience of other nations? With their esti- 
mate of southern character, ought they not to 
have expected even worse things during the past 
six years than their own credality has been 
able to realize? When general demoralization 
accompanied victory and unlimited prosperity 
for them, did they expect defeat, humiliation, 
and bankruptcy to bring an elysium of peace, 
order, and contentment to us? With capital 
all gone, labor completely disorganized, and the 
whole land in tears, did they expect unbroken 
quiet to reign and the shattered wheels of local 
government to turn smoothly, though in the 
hands of ignorance and vice? 

And yet, sir, has not the recuperative energy 
of those people been the wonder of our day? 
Is not the rapidity of their progress toward 
prosperity, in spite of the paralyzing legisla- 
tion to which they have been subjected, and 
the numberless evils with which they have been 
afflicted, unparalleled in the history of the 
world? Js not the single fact that the cotton 
crop of this past year is the largest but one 
_ which was ever raised, and the additional fact 

_that there has been an equal development of 
the other industries of the country, an over- 
whelming argument to disprove the existence 
of such a state of things as has been repre- 
sented here? Ay, sir; no amount of hearsay 
testimony given by interested witnesses as to 





for this measure. 





the prevalence of general disorder thronghout 
the South can stand a moment against such 
facts as these. They are the most unerring 
witnesses that can be found, and they are unim- 
peached. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I shall bring my remarks 
to a close, and in doing so I desire to address 
myself to gentlemen who contemplate voting 
The people of those States 
which gentlemen seem to take pleasure in 
designating as ‘‘the States lately in rebel- 
lion,’’ people whom gentlemen still continue 
to denominate ‘‘rebels’’ in this sixth year of . 
peace, are quite accustomed to military rule, 
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, 
and the Jike. It is no new thing to them. 
Bad and disgrace@l as it is to American civil- 
ization, itis better than some of the so-called 
civil governments which have existed in those 
States. If your eagerness to secure the bless- 
ings of that kind of government is so great that 
you cannot be happy until it is established 
everywhere throuhout the country, perhaps, 
those of us who have experienced those bless- 
ings ought not to be so selfish as to oppose 
-your equal participation in them. It is barely 
possible, after all, that under the influence 
of a catholic spirit the southern people may 
rejoice with you in the accomplishment of 
your purpose. But I serve notice on you now 
and. here, before the American people, that 
when your purpose is accomplished, when b 
a reckless violation of the Constitution of 
your country, in order to carry elections and | 
to maintain a party in power, you shall have 
delivered over your constituents, bound hand 
and foot, to the mercy of a military despot, 
you cannot turn your frightened gaze toward 
those upon whom you have so long been accus- 
tomed to lay your burdens, and pile upon their 
bowed heads this last load of crime and folly. 











Pnoromoun 
Pamphlet 
Binder 
Gaylord Bros. 
Makers 
Syracuse, N. Y 
PAT. JAN 21, 1908 








